We're Making Exceptions
by fleurdelisee
Summary: They have a thing: friends with benefits. Well, really, 'acquaintances with benefits' and they have an unspoken rule: they never kiss.


Kurt never intended to spill it out. It was never part of his plans to blurt out 'I love you' as Puck slammed into his prostate, making him see stars and lose control of his mouth, letting words tumble out against his will and for the worst.

It started as a one-time thing, all the way back when Kurt had joined the football team.

Kurt, as usual, waited for the other guys to leave the locker room before he showered, not putting it beyond them to have a mass panic attack if the gay kid joined them.

To think he wasn't even _out_yet, back then.

"Hummel," Puck greeted him, making Kurt jump and cling to the folded towel he held against his chest.

"Puck," Kurt replied, nodding in his direction and making a bee-line for the showers. He tensed when he heard Puck follow him.

Walking quickly on the cold tiled floor, Kurt headed for the last stall, as far from Puck as he could get. He didn't trust this guy, never had and surely never would. He could feel Puck's eyes on him as he stripped, the half-wall not making him feel safe at all.

"What do you want?" Kurt eventually asked, keeping his eyes tightly closed and hurrying through a ritual that usually took him a half-hour.

"I'm thinking."

Kurt bit his tongue so he didn't snap 'you know how to?' It was no time to be cocky, not when he was naked and Puck was staring at him.

"Well hurry up with that thinking because right now you're just being creepy. I wonder how your little friends would react if they knew you stalked _me_as I took a shower?"

"You look like a chick," Puck said, but the tone he used made it sound like he was actually talking to himself rather than to Kurt.

"I beg your pardon?" Kurt stammered, his eyes widening and immediately filling with shampoo. He yelped and rinsed them.

"I'm not gay."

Now Kurt was thoroughly confused and a little bit scared. "Neither am I," he replied with little conviction. He could not even convince himself anymore.

"Yeah, right. It doesn't matter. I'm badass so I can do pretty much anything, right?" Kurt raised his eyebrows but said nothing. Perhaps if he ignored him, Puck would go away. "What about a ride in the back of my car on Friday night?"

Kurt braced himself on the wall in front of him, the tile slimy and gross under his skin, but cold, which helped the dizziness that now filled his brain. "You—you are not offering to drive me home, are you?" he asked because he had to. He had to make sure he was not hallucinating.

"I will afterwards if you insist."

"I can't believe this," Kurt said, turning off the water. He had to get out of there. He had to get as far away from Puck as he possibly could. Maybe if he tried hard enough he might convince his father to move to Idaho or Nebraska. Or the moon.

"Don't act like a bashful virgin, Hummel. I know you are, and I'm offering you to get rid of that. And let's face it, I'm the best fuck in town."

"But I'm a guy, you know that, Puck, right? Maybe I look feminine or whatever you're telling yourself to make you feel better about this, but I am a guy. With all the—the parts."

"I'm not scared of your dick, dude. Besides, a hole's a hole."

Kurt's eyes widened and he let out a strangled, high-pitched noise. "You are not putting anything _in there_, Noah Puckerman. Mark my words."

Puck grabbed his arm as Kurt made his way back to the locker room, eager to get out of the school and go hide in his bed until everyone he knew had died.

"Listen to me, kid," Puck almost growled, his grip on Kurt's arm tight enough to bruise. His breath was warm on Kurt's cheek and he blushed. "I know you dig Hudson but you'll never have him. You'll never have anyone in this school. I'm offering you to have a mind-blowing orgasm. Take it or leave it. I won't offer this twice. Just know that no one ever said no to Puckzilla."

"So what, you'll rape me?" The words left Kurt's lips before he could stop them.

"Dude, wow, no. I'm not some kind of freak." He took a step back but still held Kurt's arm. "I'm just saying people are actually waiting in line to bone me."

Puck's delusions were almost cute, Kurt had to admit. "Well, I'm saying no."

"Oh, come on, dude! You'd actually enjoy this, you know. And then, when you meet someone like you, you'll know what to do!"

"_Someone like me,_" Kurt snarled and shook his arm out of Puck's hold.

As he walked to his locker, Kurt took the time to take in Puck, to really look at him and see the boy behind the bully. He could never score someone like that on his own. This hit him like a ton of bricks. It was an inevitability of the world: Kurt Hummel would never, _ever_convince someone looking like Puck to sleep with him. And there he was, turning down an offer to do exactly that.

"Suppose I say yes," he began warily, staring into the depth of his locker.

"I'm a gentleman, Kurt. I won't force you into anything."

"You just forced me into sex."

"I _talked_you into sex. But I'm serious. It's just a way to get off. For you, it's going to be like a crash course and for me, it'll just reinforce how badass I am."

"No one can know."

"Of course not. You think I want to go around saying I'm banging the school's fairy? I'm straight."

"So am I," Kurt said and slammed his locker.

"This has to stop, by the way. You're not fooling anyone."

Kurt did the mistake to lower his eyes. All of the bravado and lies he had built up crumbled as his eyes flickered down under Puck's gaze. "Whatever."

"Awesome! I'll pick you up at 8 on Friday. If anyone asks, you're tutoring me in math." Kurt shrugged and kept staring at the floor as Puck walked past him and towards the door. "Hey, if you're lucky, maybe some of my badassery will rub off on you."

"Get out of my face."

The actual date was a disaster. Kurt was too nervous and Puck was too rough and they nearly had to stop when Kurt's elbow landed on a half-eaten Twinkie abandoned on the backseat of Puck's car. Eventually, though, Puck's relentless rubbing against his thigh along with his mind replacing him with images of Finn brought Kurt to the edge and he had his first ever orgasm with someone else a few inches away from him. Kurt had expected a kiss, but not once did their lips meet.

"Next week, same time?" Puck asked as his car slowed down in front of the Hummels'.

Kurt blinked and kept his eyes locked on the street outside the windshield. His mind was screaming for him to turn down the offer, but the heaviness in his limbs, the memory of how incredible it felt to come and feel someone else's warm breath against his neck, to smell them all around you – and Puck _was_a gentleman, he had shaved and put on cologne and his smell was a teensy bit intoxicating – made him agree.

"But not the back of your car. My dad's going out with friends. We'll do it here."

"Deal."

In the upcoming months, whenever Kurt would stop whatever he was doing - and as time went by, it became a variation on the theme of 'having sex with Puck' most of the time - and wonder how he'd manage to get himself trapped in this, this would be the moment that popped in his head. The time he actively contributed to make this happen.

They were good at hiding it, though. No one suspected a thing, not ever. It was also almost too easy to pretend he still hated Puck during the school day, and then slip into this 'friends with benefits' routine as soon as a door was separating them from the world.

There were some subtle changes in their dynamics as the month went by. Puck stopped his active bullying, stopped tossing Kurt in dumpster, stopped laughing at gay jokes. Kurt came out and held his head high about it, and Puck would joke and say it was his 'badassery' that Kurt had learned to adopt, but only when his face was buried in Kurt's neck or pressed into a pillow; never in the real world.

And that was the thing. They talked and joked together. Kurt would give Puck's advice to make his mohawk look better and Puck would show Kurt how to use his own weight to lessen the impact of being pushed up against a locker. Puck would sometimes open up about his family, and then about the stress of having knocked up Quinn. Kurt would tell him about how he felt alone, how he was losing his father, about his fear that he'd never fit in anywhere. They talked and Kurt was aware it was dangerous.

The one boundary they had silently set was to never kiss. Their lips never met and for the longest time, Kurt was fine with it. But then, as his brain began registering how certain shirts did wonders to Puck's arms, or how the light flickered in his eyes and made them sparkle, the urge to kiss him became overwhelming. He knew it would be it, though. He knew that locking lips with Puckerman would completely destroy what they had. And he knew that doing it would mean admitting to himself he loved Puck.

He wasn't ready to assume this. Not yet. Perhaps never. Probably never. Hopefully never.

"So, how's Quinn?" Kurt asked one day as he was playing video games with Finn, Puck, Mike, Artie and Matt. Now that Finn shared his house, those guys were often around. Kurt wasn't sure he was thrilled with seeing Puck so often in a context where they had to keep their clothes one.

"Pregnancy hormones, man. She keeps yelling at me. It's better now that she moved in with Mercedes, but it's still hard."

"Mm," Kurt hummed, risking a glance at Puck and – predictably – losing himself in admiring the curve where his neck met his shoulder and the strong muscles of his back, visible thanks to the thin shirt he wore. "If she gets crazy on Mercedes, she'll slap her back into reason, preggers or not."

"Definitely. You seem like the only person Mercedes likes. That must feel great not to be yelled at by her all the time."

"That's because I'm flawless," Kurt replied with a huff, hiding his smirk the best he could. Puck didn't miss it, though, and he mirrored it. "Speaking of her, I have to go. She's waiting for me to go shopping. Sales at H&M. A matter of life and death, but I don't expect you guys to understand this."

"I'll drive you, I was leaving." Puck sprung up and Kurt sent him a warning glare, one that said 'be very careful with what you'll say next.'

The glare did not deter Puck and Kurt never made it to Mercedes. He texted her hurriedly while Puck tugged on his skinny jeans, manhandling him to lay him down on the backseat of his car.

"Mercedes isn't buying the 'bed-ridden with a cold' excuse." Kurt couldn't tear his eyes away from Puck as he stripped and wiggled his eyebrows. "You better finance the mountain of gifts it'll take me to make her forget this."

"Yeah, whatever, now I think you should get your mouth on my cock."

"Then why did you nearly give me a concussion to get me to lie underneath you?" Kurt snapped, nonetheless eyeing Puck's cock and licking his lips. When Puck crawled closer and closer, until he was straddling his chest, Kurt got it. "_Oh_. Oh god. Yes."

When the summer rolled in, Kurt had to admit that this whole thing had gotten too far. He still enjoyed it as much as the first time, if not more – definitely more, actually – but it had to stop one day and somehow, he could feel this day drawing near as they spent more and more time together.

Driving down dirt roads until they were away from civilisation, eating in the middle of a field with nothing but open land for miles around them, listening to Puck strumming his guitar to the beat of a song only he knew, Kurt could get used to it. And that where their problem was.

"Noah." Kurt chose his moment to speak up, when the silence stretching between them was comfortable and not weighted down by the many unspoken things between them. "We have to talk."

"You're already doing a great job at it. Talk at me, I want to take a nap."

Kurt rolled his eyes and shook his head, stretching his leg to playfully kick him in the ribs. The yellowed grass Puck was lying on harmonised perfectly with his tanned skin and Kurt really had to stop looking at him like that.

"I'm serious. We need to talk about this thing we have."

Puck pulled himself up on one elbow to look at Kurt. "We have nothing."

"You know that's wrong." Kurt held his gaze, refusing to cower away from his eyes like he had months ago. "You never kiss me." Well, that wasn't supposed to leave his lips.

"We're not a couple, Hummel." Puck's slip back into calling Kurt by his last name stung. "We'll never be. We're fuck buddies. Don't fucking pull a Santana on me and start getting attached. I already have Quinn to deal with and her post-partum is killing me."

"You're not even dating her," Kurt snapped, curling in on himself.

"Yeah but at least she's a girl." Puck shrugged and laid back down, using his arms as a pillow and closing his eyes.

Kurt winced and took a shuddering breath. "You're an asshole," he breathed out. "I can't believe I ever thought you were different." Kurt could not keep the hurt from showing in his voice; it shook and then broke on the last word, going into a pitch so high only bats would hear him.

"You sound like you're surprised." Puck sat up and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry. It's my fault, I started the whole thing. Look, Kurt." He took Kurt's hand in his and held his eyes. "I just want something easy, okay? Jerking off got old. If I want drama, I'll ask a girl out."

Kurt wanted to protest, he wanted to yell at Puck that he wanted more but he wasn't allowed to. Those were the terms of their arrangement, laid out in the open; the ones he had agreed on in September.

"Alright," Kurt replied with a shrug of his own, falling on his back and covering his eyes with his arms. Puck's hand came to rest on his stomach and lingered for a few seconds. Minutes later, Kurt could still feel its warmth right over the knot he still had in his stomach.

The knot was still very much in place as Kurt waved Burt, Carole and Finn out of the house, a fake smile plastered on his face. Minutes later, Puck was on the doorstep, his trademark smirk on. Kurt's heart fluttered and his bit his lip, willing himself to ignore it.

They didn't lose time – they never did – and before he knew it, Kurt was pinned against the couch cushions, his face pressed in it until he could barely breathe, while Puck thrust into him, hard and dirty and intended to make this as pleasurable and fast as possible.

The rhythm Puck had going on was already driving Kurt insane, but when he slammed into his prostate, it all came blurting out. Everything he felt for Puck compressed into three tiny words: 'I love you.' Three unfortunate words that immediately made Puck pull out and move off the couch.

Kurt kept his face pressed against the itchy wool, his eyes tightly shut to keep the tears in.

"What the hell, dude?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it out loud. I ruined everything, didn't I? You can leave, I'll understand," Kurt rambled, not daring to look at Puck, not wanting to see the rejection on his face.

"Kurt." Puck's voice was soft and unexpectedly close. He jumped when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. "Dude, look at me. Hey, Hummel, look up. It's okay."

Kurt's entire body tensed. "Don't lie to me."

"I'm not. It's okay."

Kurt finally turned his head, just in time to see Puck closing in on him. He rolled him on his back and then picked him up bridal style. Kurt had grown up over the course of the year, but he was still shorter than Puck and clearly light enough to be carried around without a problem.

Kurt wrapped his arms around Puck's shoulders, completely silent as he walked them up to Kurt's room. He expected to be dropped unceremoniously on his bed but Puck was careful when he put him down, making sure he was lying against his pillows.

He didn't lose time slipping back in and it took Kurt a few seconds to get used to the feeling. It was their first time doing it facing each other, which in itself felt really odd. Kurt had expected Puck to walk out without a word; when he didn't, his next expectation, the only logical one, was that he would want to finish everything quickly and then end everything. Not look deeply into Kurt's eyes as he slowly thrust in.

Kurt's chest rose and fell at an increasingly fast rhythm, his hands coming up to grip Puck's shoulders, fingers digging into the flesh as this new pace made him feel all those wonderful things he never thought possible.

That was the moment Puck chose to lean down and kiss Kurt. Not a peck or an accidental brush of lips; in a matter of seconds, he had sucked Kurt's bottom lip between his own, his tongue licking it relentlessly. Kurt gasped, hips thrusting up, and Puck slipped his tongue into Kurt's mouth.

Kurt kissed back, responding to Puck's presses of lips and licks with his own, trying to remember everything Brittany taught him before letting go and trusting his instincts. Puck's lips tore from his and trailed down his cheek to his right ear, nibbling the lobe stopping like he meant to say something. A sharp intake of breath later Puck was kissing his jaw and then down his throat, his hips never stopping languidly pressing into Kurt's.

"Shit, Kurt," he breathed out. Kurt closed his eyes. It was too good to last. Puck was back at whispering dirty things and calling him names that were degrading to the human race as a whole. "You don't even know, have no idea." A kiss to his sternum, a lick to his left nipple. "You're so precious, so gorgeous, babe, no idea"

Kurt's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. "Noah," he struggled to say, his eyes closing tight as Puck once again hit his prostate, sending sparks through his body. It felt so good it almost hurt.

"Hush, don't talk." Puck reached up and stroked Kurt's hair, pushing it out of his forehead. "Keep your voice, I want you to sing for me later. Your singing voice, dude, you have no idea. When you sang Defying Gravity, I was so turned on I thought I was going to pass you."

Kurt tried to steady his breath as Puck continued whispering words that made absolutely _no sense_in his ears. This was Noah Puckerman and he was listing all the things he loved about Kurt and it made no sense.

Kurt came when Puck sucked at the patch of skin behind his ear and he followed soon, choking out something that sounded a lot like 'I love you' even though Kurt refused to believe it. Kurt lay motionless on his bed for a moment while Puck got rid of the condom so he could catch his breath. He was about to sit up when the other boy came back and wrapped an arm around his waist.

"Turn over," Puck whispered against the skin of his neck and Kurt obliged, Puck pressing himself against his back as soon as he was on his side. "I owe you an explanation," he said, punctuating his sentence with a kiss to the back of Kurt's neck.

"You think?" Kurt tried for cocky but ended up sounding lost and confused.

"I love you."

Kurt let out a sound halfway between a squeal and a shriek, his breath picking up again. "Very funny."

"I'm not joking. Why do you think I started this whole thing with you? I could have had any cheerleader I wanted but I went for the closeted gay kid. Why do you think?"

"I was an easy prey."

"You were fucking gorgeous and I was crazy about you, yeah. That's more like it. And I know you don't believe me and I've been awful to you and I'm sorry. You were kind of scary and I was confused and the usual bully apology."

Kurt stayed silent for a while, trying to clear his head. Puck was planting kissing on the back of his neck and down his shoulders and back, sometimes stopping to nuzzle Kurt's hair, his hands pressed into Kurt's belly, warm and solid against the tender skin.

"Why me?"

"Fuck if I know. I just know I've got you under my skin and there's nothing I can do about it. And I know you reciprocate it, now, so you'll have to deal with me even more." There was amusement in Puck's voice and Kurt smiled.

"We'll see that after you've taken me out on a date, Noah," Kurt replied once he trusted his voice. "But I'm a gentleman, you know, and I don't put out on the first date."

"You're kidding."

"I'm dead serious, Noah. Now that we're going to be in a proper relationship, you'll have to work to touch this. I'm not easy, sir."

Puck snorted and Kurt elbowed him. "After this nap?"

Kurt grinned and moved closer to Puck. "After this nap."


End file.
